If I am Saved by Grace, Can I Live in Sin?
Romans 6:1-2
Last week, I addressed a foundational issue in regard to the Christian faith: “Can I Know I am Saved?”
I made the point that all believers can and should enjoy the assurance of salvation.
And that the assurance of salvation comes not from within ourselves, but from a proper understanding of the fact that salvation comes from God.
We are not the cause of our own salvation; we are the recipients of God’s unmerited favor; His amazing grace.
And when we realize that salvation is all of God, and that it rests completely in the work of Jesus Christ, then we will be able to rest in the blessed assurance of salvation.
However, there is a great concern which many people have with this doctrine – the doctrine of Justification by Faith.
There are those who believe that if you teach people that salvation is of God, and that we contribute nothing to our salvation, that believers will become complacent.
Or worse, that they will use God’s grace as a license to live in sin.
Well, as a follow up to last week’s message I want to address this question directly; and I will do so knowing I am following the pattern as the Apostle Paul, who does the same in the book of Romans.
In Romans, Paul expounds the grace of God in the first five chapters, explaining man’s sinful condition and God’s plan of redemption through grace.
Then, in Romans 6, he makes sure to address a very important question: If salvation is all of grace, can I live in sin?
We will expound his answer in today’s message.
READ: ROMANS 6:1-2
Probably one of the most perplexing subjects in the Bible is sin.
There are many questions about its nature, how it affects us mentally, what it does to our bodies, and on and on that cause no end of theological debate.
Even more perplexing is the apparent tension that the Bible seems to have on the subject of sin.
On one hand, the Bible does declare that all sin is an equally heinous breech of God’s law - to break one law of God is to break them all.
James 2:10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.
On the other hand, the Bible also teaches that some have incurred a higher degree of sin and guilt than have others.
John 19:11 Jesus answered him [Pilate], "You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin."
A similar tension exists when we discuss sin in the life of the believer.
On one hand, the Bible seems to declare that the believer does not or will not sin.
1 John 5:18 (NASB) We know that no one who is born of God sins; but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him.
Yet, in that very same book we read that sin is actually a possibility in the life of a believer:
1 John 2:1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;
In fact, it is not only a possibility - it is an absolute:
1 John 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.
Even Jesus, in his model prayer, taught his disciples to pray daily: “Forgive us our sins…”
As I said, when looked at as a whole, it seems like there is a great deal of tension in Scripture regarding the subject of sin.
Q. But is the Bible sending us a “mixed signal” concerning sin?
Is it presenting to us with an unreconcilable contradiction, like that of the ‘Married Bachelor’
Is it presenting two things that cannot exist together?
Of course, the answer is no.
The Bible is not attempting to speak in any form of ‘double-talk’ on the subject of sin, nor is it in contradiction with itself on the subject of sin.
It does, however, present us with a multifaceted view of the subject of sin.
We need to study all aspects of this issue if we are to understand the various passages regarding sin.
This is especially true of Romans chapter 6, which deals with sin in the life of a believer.
An important concept which all believer should understand is SANCTIFICATION.
Sanctification (Gr. Hagiosmos) Consecration, purification.
Sometimes translated as holiness.
It is the process of God’s grace by which the believer is separated from sin and becomes dedicated to God’s righteousness.
In the Old Testament, when something was called “Holy to the Lord”, this denoted that it had been set apart by God’s grace.
The High Priest would wear his garments, and his turban had a piece of gold which read “Holy to the Lord”.
This indicated that his role was a sanctified role.
NOTE: We use the word sanctified even outside of the church, in similar ways, that may help us understand the depth of its meaning.
We have discussions about the “sanctity” of human life.
What does this mean?
It means that human life is set-apart as being different and special in relation to all other life of the planet.
This idea is founded on the same basic definition as sanctification when it is discussed in the Bible.
When a person is called “sanctified” it indicates that they have been set apart by God as being special.
They are no longer just citizens of the world, going to and fro with no purpose.
Instead, God is now at work in them, conforming them to the image of His Son Jesus Christ.
NOTE: We see this word for the first time in Romans in the 6th chapter.
Romans 6:22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.
The Bible speaks of sanctification in three (3) ways:
Positional - In its purest form, sanctification denotes being ‘set-apart’.
In Christ, we have been set-apart. We have gone from the position of God’s judgment, to the position of His grace.
Thus, in this sense, we have been sanctified positionally.
This is pictured vividly in Ephesians 2:1-7
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience- 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ- by grace you have been saved- 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Perfect - This will come when we are totally set apart from this world, and brought into the new earth to forever live without the taint of sin.
In the life to come, for the believer, there will be no sin at all, and we will live n a perfect state of holiness.
Progressive - This is the daily conformation of the believer to the image of Jesus Christ.
It is the area of sanctification that actually INCREASES in the life of the believer.
It is impossible that a believer could be anymore “in Christ” or that when a believer gets to Heaven that they could be made anymore “perfected”.
Yet, the believer does grow in sanctification during his life as He is brought under control of the Holy Spirit and yields himself to Christ.
This third type of Sanctification is the theme of Romans 6
In fact, the very passage that uses the word sanctification makes this point:
Romans 6:22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.
Furthermore, the pattern of how sanctification increases is given just a few verses before:
Romans 6:19 For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.
Progressive Sanctification is achieved as we stop presenting our bodies to be used for sinful things, and start presenting them for righteous things.
And this is not something that happens perfectly the moment we believe.
It is a process of God’s Spirit guiding us to obedience and a desire for His will to be done.
Now, understanding the concept of sanctification, let’s examine the text…
Romans 6:1a “What shall we say then?”
It is important for us to note that this question is in direct response to Paul’s final statement in Romans 5. Let’s look at it and see what is his thrust.
Romans 5:20-21 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Paul had been discussing the fact that sin came into the world through Adam, and even before the law was given, sin was in the world because
(1) all sinned in Adam
(2) all people have the law written on their hearts.
Then he says that the Law came in to make the trespass increase.
This didn’t mean that sin necessarily got worse, but that the knowledge of sin increased.
And where the knowledge of sin increased, the knowledge of grace increased as well.
Thus, when sin abounded, grace SUPERABOUNDED.
Where sin reigned, grace reigned even stronger.
He asks, what shall we say then:
1b “Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?”
To some, this is a legitimate question in regard to Paul’s teaching.
I mean, if salvation is all of grace, and more sin needs more grace, why not just be f filled with sin so that God’s grace is increased?
NOTE: What I find interesting is that those people who reject the Reformed doctrine of “Sola Fide” often use this argument.
They say, “If you say man is saved by faith alone, then he can sin willy-nilly without consequence.”
That is the same argument the apostle Paul dealt with in his teaching.
SIDENOTE: If we are fielding the same questions he fielded, it is even more evidence that we actually do understand and teach exactly what he taught.
The question is simple: SHOULD WE CONTINUE TO LIVE IN SIN SO THAT GRACE CAN ABOUND?
2a “By no means!”
The Greek phrase here is sometimes translated ‘God forbid’ but is not really this phrase.
It is the most dramatic form of the negative in the Greek language.
It is used over and over in the book of Romans to indicate a point of severe disagreement.
It is the phrase “Meh Genoito”
“Genoito” means to happen or to exist, and the preceding “meh” makes it become the antithesis, which would literally be “no exist”.
The NASB translates it, “MAY IT NEVER BE!”
To understand Paul’s teaching is to understand a simple truth:
The teaching that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone does not mean that it is devoid of works.
It simply means it is not dependent upon works.
Salvation is by grace alone, but the truly saved soul will yearn to do the things of God.
A heart that doesn’t yearn for God, and instead yearns for sin, cannot truly be regarded as a saved soul.
After Paul makes this powerful negative statement, he then asks a profound question:
2b “How can we who died to sin still live in it?”
This is an important question, because it helps us understand the relationship to a believer and sin.
A believer does fight a battle, a daily battle, with sin.
Sin is everywhere in our culture, and the opportunities for indulgence are so frequent that it is frightening.
And believers do sin; because we are not yet perfected in glory - we have a corrupted body of flesh.
But there is a difference between fighting a battle with sin and “living in sin”.
Living in sin indicates a habitual, unbroken pattern of sin.
Living in sin is tantamount to ‘making your home’ in your sin.
IN FACT: Church discipline is reserved for those who have chosen to give up the battle, to forsake Christ’s commands, and make their home in their sin.
CONCLUSION
The church also has always been in danger of contamination by false believers who wickedly use the freedom of the gospel as a justification for sin.
As Jude declared, “For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ” (Jude 4).
It is one thing to teach that all sin can be forgiven, and that no person is so much a sinner that they cannot be reached by God’s grace.
It is another thing entirely to say that a believer has the “right” to sin with wanton abandonment.
This is something that the Bible clearly teaches against.
Just because we have a Savior in Jesus Christ does not give us a license to sin.
And anyone who would teach such a hellish doctrine is in clear violation to both Scripture and conscience.
Beloved, we all fight a daily battle with sin.
We are in the process of sanctification, but we are not yet fully conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.
Thus, we are to live each day in true repentance, seeking to be like Christ, and recognizing that we do not have the right to live in sin - instead we have the responsibility to discipline ourselves, knowing that God is at work within us both to will and to do His good pleasure.
In the end, it is certain that we are not saved by our good works.
But neither have we been saved to live in sin.
The Bible says we have been predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ.
And if we are believers, we should long for His image to be reflected in our lives.
